


The Girls' Night

by MelyndaR



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Multi, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 09:18:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10828320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: When Peggy's work leads to her having to forgo plans with Ana, she comes home to an unsettling picture.





	The Girls' Night

Peggy hated working late nights on cases these days. She’d do it, of course she would, but she had so much more to look forward to at home these days that sometimes it irked her to spend her evenings anywhere else. And she outright despised working late nights without her favorite partner at her side.

Alas, Howard had dragged Edwin away to some project in Spain for the weekend, which meant that Peggy and Ana had been forced to fend without him, and since Peggy was just now getting home at nearly two in the morning, Ana had, for the evening, been forced to fend for herself. Which Ana was entirely capable of, but Peggy hated it nonetheless – mostly because it meant that she and Ana had missed the date night that they’d had planned for themselves before Edwin came back the next morning, their version of making the best of their Edwin-less weekend.

Now, walking up the steps to the Jarvis’s small LA house, she fully expected to see darkened windows and her girlfriend in the trio’s bed fast asleep. Instead, she noticed the kitchen window was open and the light was on in the room on the other side of the curtains. She stepped quicker, already reaching for the gun in her garter holster, even though she noted that the door was still locked tight.

 _If someone had hurt Ana_ , she thought, making quick and quiet work of unlocking the door and stepping inside, _there was going to be hell to pay._

The house was silent as she stepped inside; the kitchen and hall lights on and everything else as dark as the place should be. There was a soft clink of dishes in the kitchen, and Peggy’s hand tightened on her gun as she stepped into the doorway of the room.

Ana was sitting alone at the kitchen table, a cup of tea in front of her. Her hair streamed down her back in bright, messy waves, and she seemed unharmed, yet still… troubled. For one thing, she hadn’t even noticed Peggy come in.

“Ana?” Peggy asked softly, not sure whether or not she should give into relief yet.

At the sound of the other woman’s voice, Ana started, looking her way with wide eyes. Her normally rosy cheeks were pale, and her hands were clenched around her teacup. Peggy definitely did not feel relieved.

“Love, what is it?” Peggy put her gun back in its holster without taking her eyes off of Ana.

Ana looked away, shaking her head. _Apparently it was “nothing.”_

Peggy hummed disapprovingly, stepping around the table and directly into Ana’s line of sight as she sat down at the table, pulling the chair close enough that their knees were touching.  “Ana, it is two in the morning, and you look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”

They were so damned used to being fine, fine, _fine_ , that when they weren’t fine they didn’t always know how to talk about it, and even if they did know how they often didn’t _want_ to regardless. Ana and Edwin had, since the recent beginnings of their three-way relationship, taken turns dragging her out of that mindset for the most part; now it appeared to be her turn to do the same for Ana.

She reached across the table and took Ana’s hand, holding on tight as she demanded gently, “Talk to me; what’s happened?”

Ana still didn’t look at her. “Just a nightmare. Ridiculous. It’s nothing, really.”

“I’d say it is,” Peggy pushed gently, glancing at Ana’s tea as she noted that there was no longer even any steam rising from it. “How long have you been awake?”

Ana shrugged listlessly. She didn’t know.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Peggy asked gently.

Ana shook her head, but she started talking anyway, so Peggy stayed still, keeping the other woman’s hands clasped in her own as she listened, afraid to break the spell that seemed to have fallen over poor, weary Ana. “My imagination is unfortunately… _vivid_ , sometimes at night more than ever, and it’s always at its worst when Edwin is not here.”

Hesitantly, Peggy asked, “What did you dream about?”

Ana drew in a shaky breath. “My family. My nieces and nephews, sisters and brothers, dying. Edwin dying trying to save me.” She shuddered, even as she muttered, “It’s not true, I know it’s not. It’s stupid.”

She tried to pull her hand from Peggy’s so that she could put her head in her hands, but Peggy resisted, using the tension in Ana’s arm to help her drag her own chair closer until they were shoulder to shoulder. Guiding Ana’s head to rest on her shoulder, she replied firmly, “It is _not_ stupid.”

“I know that Edwin didn’t die; imagining such things is needlessly torturing myself. I know that my family _did_ die, but imagining _how_ is _still_ needlessly torturing myself.”

“Ana,” Peggy asked with the softest of smiles. It seemed easier to talk to her like this, when she didn’t have to look into blue eyes that were doubtlessly filled with pain. “The first time that Edwin and you both slept in my bed, remind me what happened that night.”

Ana turned her face into Peggy’s shoulder, being utterly disagreeable as she muttered, “You dreamed of my death, and you were being utterly stupid in doing so.”

_Fine. Maybe it was time to try a different tactic._

Peggy sighed, kissing the top of Ana’s red head as she asked, “How can I help you, my love? Tell me what to do.”

Ana shook her head. In trying to be less trouble, she was making this even more difficult, but Peggy didn’t feel particularly inclined to complain; it was rare enough for Ana to open up about her past as it was. “This is all I need,” the redhead said quietly.

So Peggy wrapped her arms around the other woman and said nothing for a long moment, perfectly content to let Ana glean whatever comfort “this” could give her. When Ana began to occasionally shift against her shoulder though she didn’t really move yet, Peggy asked, “Does Edwin know that your nightmares are worse when he’s away?”

“No,” Ana answered with a faint edge of sarcasm in her voice. “He’s away.”

“And you don’t tell him when he returns?”

“No. Travelling with Mr. Stark is, occasionally, part of his job.”

“So?”

“So I don’t want to… guilt him into feeling like he has to stay, not when we both know that his job with Mr. Stark has certain requirements.”

“So does Edwin’s wife, Mrs. Jarvis.”

Ana snorted, and Peggy hoped that perhaps she’d been given a reason to smile a little at their banter. “I think,” Ana said after another small lapse of silence. “That I would like to go back to bed.”

Peggy made a move to stand then, saying, “Then let’s go to bed; goodness knows it’s late enough.”

Yet she noted at the same time that Ana hadn’t moved, and the redhead muttered petulantly, “But I don’t want to walk all the way back into the bedroom…”

Peggy chuckled at her, perverse, quirky little Ana, and jerked her own shoulder, forcing Ana’s head up and off of it as she stood. “Very well, but we both need sleep, so why don’t we take this into the living room, perhaps? I’m sure the couch can fit the two of us if we hold one another tight enough.”

There was no real innuendo in her tone at the suggestion. In her estimation, Ana honestly just needed to be held, and that was all that Peggy was offering – or feeling particularly up to, given the terribly long day that she’d had.

Ana nodded, mumbling an agreement that Peggy didn’t hear well enough to understand. She stood from the table, dumping the cold contents of her teacup into the sink before she took Peggy’s hand and trailed her into the living room.

And that was where Edwin found them when he entered the house less than five hours later – the loves of his life wrapped around one another on their living room couch. Ana was clinging to Peggy in her sleep to keep from falling off of the couch, and Peggy was still in her day dress, though she appeared to have flung her heels halfway across the room before settling onto the couch.

Edwin merely shook his head with a smile, not bothering to wake either of them, not bothering to question it. He bent around the two of them wherever necessary, kissing them each on the cheek before he muttered, “Sleep well, my darlings.”

He set Peggy’s shoes at the end of the couch, swept an afghan from the back of the couch and over both women, and then headed to bed himself. Whatever had led to them being in such a position together, he was willing to leave them there undisturbed. He would leave them to sleep, go take a short nap himself, and the three of them could reconvene later for a late breakfast.

It sounded like a heavenly idea to him… but then again, so did anything involving his darling Peggy and Ana.

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't sure which plot point you would prefer the most after I read your letter, but I already had most of this written, and so I decided to stick with it. I really hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
